Before playing, the first thing you should do is to download the 1.02 patch. You can find it on the Fallout 2 Download page of this site. This guide will cover most of the quests in the game, so please don’t read from start to finish unless you’ve already finished the game. This is by the way my first FAQ/Walkthrough, so feel free to send me criticism (as long as it’s constructive) at anton666@gmail.com.
If you want to be able to do almost every quest, here's what I suggest:
Note: to be able to have the stats I recommend, you will need the gifted trait.
Strength(ST): You don't need strength a lot during the course of the game (and you can easily get 5+), so here I recommend 5. The advanced power armour will give you 4+ and the red memory module (located in Vault City’s vault) will grant you 1+.
Perception(PE): This stat can be really important sometimes, especially in the early stages of the game when you don't have a high weapon skill to help you aim. I'd say 7 would do. You can get +1 perception from the yellow module (in the military base).
Endurance(EN): This stat boosts your health, but not all that much. 6 would be adequate, any more points do more harm than good. There is no module for this stat.
Charisma(CH): It gives you the ability to have more npcs in your party. You can get the magnetic personality though(and mirrored shades(+1) and the blue module, located in Navarro(also +1)), so you only need 6. You can have one party member for each 2 points of charisma, so 8 is enough if you get magnetic personality. Dialogue options are also slightly affected by this.
Intelligence(IN): Very, very important. Intelligence is used a lot in the game. It, among other things, decides how many skill points you get per level. You get 1 intelligence point from a module, located in Sierra Army Depot, so you should have 9 base.
Agility(AG): This, like intelligence is a very important stat. It decides how many action points you have (and also armour class). To get 10 AP you will need 10 agility, so I recommend that you get it. You'll need the small frame trait to get it though. You can, however, choose the gain agility perk later in the game, but there are many good perks on that level so it's considered a waste in my book. There is no module for this stat.
Luck(LK): Not very important unless you're a sniper and have to rely on critical hits. You can get 2+ from the hubologists in NCR or +1 luck and +1 intelligence from the hubologists in San Fran, I recommend the first one. 5 is enough.
Conclusion:
At the end of the game you'll have this(unless you use any of the gain stat perks):
You'll need gifted and small frame to get the stats I recommend. They are -with some exceptions- pretty much the only useful ones, anyway.
Small Guns is a must. It's probably the kind of weapons you'll be using the most throughout the game. Speech is also used a lot in almost every quest. For the third skill I recommend lockpick, but it's your choice.
Other useful skills are:
Unarmed: It allows you to hit your opponents more often and harder. It’s useful for the fights in San Fransisco
and New Reno, but not anywhere else.
Sneak: Good when you don't want to fight.
Science: Lets you hack into computers, which can be very rewarding sometimes. 125% required to get SkyNet as an NPC.
Energy weapons: Would be a little more useful if you had energy weapons at the start, but it's useful in the
later stages at any rate.
Skills you REALLY shouldn't get:
Throwing: Probably the least useful skill in the game. I never use thrown weapons.
Barter: This doesn't really do what it's supposed to do. It only seems to work when you buy items via
the conversation screen (I.e. when you buy the car)
Big guns: The main drawback with these is that they consume ammo. Lots of it. Besides, a vindicator m
inigun won’t do more damage than a gauss rifle hit to the eyes. It’s your call, though.
So, our character looks like this:
Stats:
ST: 5
PE: 7
EN: 6
CH: 6
IN: 9
AG: 10
LK: 5
Traits:
Small Frame
Gifted
Tag skills:
Small Guns
Speech
Lockpick
Gender: It doesn't make a huge impact on the game, but a female with sex appeal can sometimes have an
advantage. Not really worth it though.
Age: You won't even notice this in the pace of the game.
Name: Kind of obvious, really.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the Character creation. Now, without further ado, let's get ready to rumbleeeeee!
You start out in front of the huge temple. There is no way to escape this quest, not even if you do manage to kill the guy that guards the path back to the village. You'll lose the game if you kill him anyway. So start with just going into the temple.
Now you will notice two Giant Ants just ahead of you. They're not very hard to kill, but you can try to sneak by them if you want to. Open the door and you'll see three ways leading in different directions. Now, I usually don't do it, but if you clear the whole temple you'll get about 1000 experience points in total and some healing powder and antidote. If you just want to get out, take the path leading north. After a short walk, there's once again two ways leading in different directions. Take the left one and use your lockpick skill on the door (it doesn't matter if you have low lockpick skill).
After passing through the door, you'll get to a hallway. This hallway is cluttered with traps. You'll notice the traps as little brick-like thingies on the ground. If you use your traps skill on them, you have a chance to disarm them and if you succeed, you'll get some XP, so you can clear the entire hallway if you like. If you don't, take one step to the right and run straight through, and you shouldn't step on anyone. Take a left and mash the giant ants in your way, search the pot north of the hole and you'll find some plastic explosives (wonder where the tribals got that). Neat. Now, to the north-west you'll find a door that can't be opened. To open it, you'll have to use the plastic explosives on it. There is also a trap under the door; you can see a really small part of it sticking out. Disarm it, unless you want a spear in your chest.
When you get through the newly blown hole, take a left and slaughter the 2 giant ants in the room. To the north there is a door. Open it(duh) and talk to the tribesman in the next room. Now, there are three ways to pass this test. You can fight him, talk him out of it (you need to have speech tagged for this, thanks to Silencer for that info) or steal the key and unlock the door yourself. If you fight him, you'll only get 300 exp when you exit. If you steal the key or talk him out of it, you'll get 600. If you can't talk him out of it, say you need time to prepare and then quicksave (F6). Now, use your steal skill on him and take the key. If you fail, reload, since you will pretty much lose the game if you don't succeed. Anyway, once you're out of the temple, talk to the elder inside the tent just next to you to activate the G.E.C.K. quest.
The tribesman guarding the bridge can sharpen your spear if you have high enough perception (6 required). Just talk to him and comment on his spear. He'll ask you to get some flint. Your aunt Morlis has some, you can either steal it (fail three times and you'll get it anyway) or talk her out of it (50 exp) or give her 3 bags of healing powders.
Aunt morlis has 100$ in a pot in her tent.
The tribesman by the stonehead south of the elder’s tent can teach you some unarmed skill.
The tribesman in the tent east of the stonehead can teach you melee weapons skill.
Repairing the well
Just use your repair skill on the well south of the elder’s tent to get 100 exp.
Hakunins garden
Go talk to Hakunin in the tent northwest of the elder’s tent. He'll give you a quest to kill the evil plants in his garden. Spooky. Just mash the plants with your spear for 200 exp and some healing powder. Also, Hakunin will now make you healing powder if you give him one xander root and one broc flower for each bag. You can find xander roots scattered around bookcases in Arroyo, and broc flowers can be found in the area northwest of the main village.
Smoke
Your cousin wants you to go get his dog, Smoke. The dog is located on the area northwest of your location. In that area, there are some geckos, but don't worry, they won't attack you. Well, actually, on rare occasions they can attack you so save first if you want to be sure. Just walk to the north, picking up any of those flowers and xander roots you might see. Be sure not to step in the goo. When you get close to the dog, it'll bark a little and then follow you back to your cousin. 100 exp awarded.
The Dunton twins both carry spiked knuckles. If you first steal them and then go into combat mode, and then exiting, they'll have a new pair. This, though, is probably a glitch and shouldn't be used by the legit player.
There is a "Guns and Bullets" magazine in the house south of Maida Buckners bar.
Maida Buckner sells a suit of leather armour(though it's expensive).
Vic's house (north of Buckner’s) contains among other things a pipe rifle, 1x 24 mm JHP, a broken radio (used in a quest), and a stimpack.
The Golden Gecko bar has a locked room, which contains a fuzzy painting (worth 300$). You can just kick the door down just like you would kick a human if you can't lockpick it.
John Sullivan in the Golden Gecko can teach you 10% unarmed and melee weapons skill.
There's a robot in an area to the west (north of the entrance to Trapper town) which you can kill for 200 exp. There's also some dead Enclave troops and a crashed vertibird nearby. One of the troopers has a reactor keyard (yellow) on him, but I don’t think it can be used.
You can recruit your first NPC (and a very good one i might add), Sulik, in Buckners bar. You'll have to give either him or Maida 350$ though.
Torr's brahmin
Speak to the local idiot, Torr (he’s the one that looks like a tribal) and he will ask you to help him guard his brahmin. Apparently, some "bugmen" are stealing them. You'll end up with Torr and his brahmin, and you will immediately be attacked by a radscorpion. They're not very dangerous at all, and their poison barely hurts you. Now, go to the west and you'll notice the dunton brothers hanging around. Don't waste your time talking to them (though they will ask you to take Torr's brahmin if you do), just kill them. (If you stole their spiked knuckles before they'll have new ones. Neat!). Note that they often tend to run away and then they might be hard to kill. After that, kill the radscorps (you will get a message when all of them are dead) and Torr will say something about moo-moos. 250 exp earned.
Whiskey Bob's still
A guy in the bar want's you to fill up his still with firewood. You can push the price to 65$, but if you don't succeed the first time, do not try it again. If you do he won't give you the quest. This quest is fairly simple; just go south to the green exit grid and you'll come to the area. Now, kill all the geckos -or sneak by them, whatever you prefer - and use the firewood on the floor in the house on the still. You have to do it all in a day, so don't rest if you lose health.
The rat god
You might notice that everyone in trapper town (the west area of the town) is complaining about rats. Well, to stop their damn complaining, you'll have to kill the rat god. To get through the locked door that leads to him, you can a) convince the guy in the same house to give you the key, or b) get some meat jerky and give it to the barking dog in the east area of Klamath, it'll spit out a key. As soon as you get through the locked door and kill all the rats, be sure to get the rubber boots in the guns store; you'll need them later. As you get to the second floor, before you come to the rat god (the pig rat-like thingie in the southeast) search everything and you'll find a body cut in half. This body conveniently contains a 10 mm gun, which can be used to shoot things, in this case the rat god. When you kill it, you'll be awarded some exp and 100$ that is on the skeleton next to him. The quest is now officially done, but two floors up there is a VERY valuable thingie that you'll want to have. So get up to the next floor and kill some more rats. In the southeast part of this area there are some lockers with stimpacks and other stuff. Proceed until you get to a locked door. You can try to lockpick this, but it's a small chance that you'll succeed. Pick up the dynamite on the shelf instead, and blow the door to smithereens. Note that the dynamite is worth 500$, so it pays off to lockpick it, even though it's hard. When you get up the ladder, search the car near the fence to the south and retrieve the Fuel Cell Regulator. This thing will reduce the amount of fuel cells used by the car, which can be really valuable.
Smiley the trapper
Talk to the old lady in the Buckner’s bar (Maida’s mom, btw) and she'll whine about the missing trapper, Smiley. Offer to help her, and she'll give you the location of the toxic caves. Get out of Klamath and go there (I strongly suggest that you take Sulik with you and give him your sharpened spear). Now, this is where you need the rubber boots. You don't have to keep them in your action slot, just in your inventory. Also, give a pair to Sulik too, unless you want to wait five minutes for him to go through a puddle of goo. Be sure to check the message box incase your boots melt; there is a chance for them to do that every time you step in goo. When you get to Smiley, you can try repairing the generator if you want to, but you'll need an electronic lockpick to get through the elevator doors. That elevator leads down to an area stuffed with goodies, among others the invaluable 2 mm ammo for the gauss rifle. Anyway, once you get Smiley, make your way back to the surface and get to Klamath. You'll now get exp, some money, and the gecko skinning perk from Smiley. Smiley can also teach you some outdoorsman skill.
You've now done all the quests in Klamath, so it's time to head to the Den. Ask Maida Buckner what other towns are nearby and you'll get the location. Before you go, be sure to get the stuff from Vic's house.
The Den is an incredibly annoying town. The reason for that is the little brats standing outside every store. They'll steal things from you when you walk by, and then sell them to merchants. The best way to counter this is to enter action mode when you walk by them. They can't steal from you when in action mode. I'm only 99% sure this works though, so save when you enter the town and check your inventory when you walk by the kids.
There's some stuff in the graves in the east area of the town which can be dug up with a shovel, but it'll lower your karma and give you the grave digger perk.
Smitty(in the west part of town) has a car for sale. You have to bring him a Fuel Cell Regulator though (not the gadget you picked up in Klamath) and 2000$. You can then install the Fuel Cell Controller by yourself (if you have the necessary skills) or you can pay Smitty to do it for 750$. There is a bug though, which is easy to exploit. Talk to him about the car, and then say that you want to ask him something else. Then say that you want to buy the car, and you won't need a fuel cell controller. You'll still need the money though. This is kind of lame, but it works. Smitty also sells micro-fusion cells (used as car fuel and ammo for most energy weapons) and sometimes a super tool kit.
If you're a woman, you can screw a dude in the hole for some cash.
Anna's locket
Go into the southernmost house in the west area (next to the brotherhood of steel) by midnight and you'll see a ghost wandering around. Talk to her to activate the quest; it doesn't really matter what you say. Next, go to Mom's in the east area and talk to Mom. Ask her about the haunted house, and she'll eventually tell you that Joey,
the local thug, stole a locket from there. Go talk to Joey. You can either talk him into giving you the locket or simply waste him and take it. Either way, go talk to the ghost when you got the locket. She'll say some stuff and then become a pile of bones. Pick up the bones. Then take the shovel from the bookcase. Go to the graveyard and examine the gravestones. The one you're looking for is labeled Anna something. Dig up the grave (you won't receive the grave digger perk or a loss of karma) and put the bones in there. Then cover the grave and you're done. Exp earned and a gun from Joey if you killed him.Smitty's meal
Go talk to Mom, she'll give you a quest to deliver a meal for Smitty (ask "anything to do around here?"). Just do it and he will give you a stimpak. Then get back to Mom and you'll get a free meal.
Lara's gang
Go talk to Lara, south of Tubby's and she will give you a quest to find out what's inside the church in the east part of town. Save before attempting to get in. When you talk Tyler into letting you in, examine the boxes and get back to Lara. She now wants you to find out if it's ok by Metzger that she fights Tyler. Just go to the slaver's guild in the east part and ask him. He'll say yes. Get back, and you'll get yet another quest to find any weakness in Tylers gang. Go talk to Tyler and he will say that they're throwing a big party that night (You may have to talk to him more than once though). Get back to Lara, and she will want you to participate in the attack. Accept, and you'll be magically teleported outside the church at night. The gang will attack the guy outside, and when he's dead you can either go in and kill everyone, or exit combat and then talk to Lara. Rewards: cash and exp.
Vic
Get to the slaver's guild and talk to the guard outside the room where Vic is being held. Talk to him about Vic and ask if you can see him. If he won't let you in, ask Metzger and he'll say yes. Talk to the guard and he will open the door for you. Now, talk to Vic. He will tell you that he has to fix the radio. Inform him about the broken radio that you have (which you should have gotten from Vic's house) and then go talk to Metzger. Now, you can either buy Vic free for 1000$, or you can kill the slavers. Of course, we're going to kill the slavers. Note that if you're a woman you can screw Metzger to halve the prize for Vic. Killing Metzger is not easy, and I strongly recommend that you have some lockpick and small guns skill. Also, you should get Sulik an SMG from Tubby's. Get in the room with Metzger, and lock the door. Kill Everyone. Stand in front of the window and snipe the guards in the other rooms. Unlock the door, run out and kill the remaining guards. Exp earned. Now, free Vic and ask him to join you (he's worthless in combat until you get him a gauss rifle or a combat shotgun or something, but he can repair stuff for you). Go talk to Becky and she will give you 1000$.
Becky's money
Ask Becky for work, and she'll ask you to retrieve 200$ from Fred. Fred is in the building just south to Becky's bar. He will ask you to loan him some money, 100$ to be precise. If you do, he will then ask you to give him another 50. You can just get the 200 out of him, but if you loan him money and come back a month or so later, he will give you 2000$ and lots of stuff. Get back to Becky. Reward: 100$.
Becky's book
Ask for more work, and she wants you to find her book, The Lavender Flower. The guy she mentions doesn't have it, and it is randomly placed in the east part of the Den. The only place I managed to find it, though, is in the graveyard. When you find it, get back to Becky. 80$ earned.
Becky's still
This quest should be done AFTER you kill Metzger. Go talk to Becky and buy some whisky. Then get to the Hole, and ask for a whisky. Ask why it costs much more than Becky's. Frankie will ask you to find out how she does it. Get to her bar. Every ten minutes the guard by the northern door will go talk to a patron, unless you stand too close. Rest 10 minutes and when he moves, lockpick the door and go down the stairs. Get back to the Hole and tell Frankie that she has a still. He wants you to destroy it. Get a crowbar from a bookcase in the Hole and then get to Becky's and use it on the still. Now, get back to the Hole. Frankie will give you some cash. Tell him that she will build another one. Try to convince him to cooperate with her (save first) and you will get more cash and exp. Note that if you don't manage to convinve him, you will suffer a loss in karma. Also, Becky will not talk to you after you do this quest, which is why you should do it after you kill Metzger.
Stacey's Cat
Talk to Stacey at Mom's and buy her a drink. She'll tell you about her cat. 200 xp earned.
That is all the quests you can do in the Den. Talk to Karl the drunkard at Mom's before you leave and he'll mention some crap about ghosts. If you saved Vic he will give you the location of Vault City. Get there. On the way though, you will find an unknown town. Stop there.
North of Modoc (on the world map) you can have the encounter named "a merchant with guards". It's a trader who sells some stuff. When you talk to him you will fall asleep and won't be aware of what weapon he is talking about. Then you are given the choice if you want to buy it or not. Mostly it's garbage, but sometimes it will be the Alien Blaster.
If you have a rope you can use it on the well to lower yourself down. On the bottom there is some money (you'll suffer a karma loss for taking it though) and Jonny's BB gun.
There are two NPC's in this town, both of them are COMPLETELY useless though. It's Davin and Miria, and you marry one of them automatically if you have sex with them. Also, when you do, all your stuff will be thrown on the ground and you'll have to pick it up again.
There's a deathclaw in a house in the north part. It's relatively weak for a deathclaw. It's guarded by dogs and there's a bunch of rocks in front of the door. You need either dynamite or 8 ST to remove them.
There's a brahmin north of the slaughterhouse with a broken leg which you can heal for 200 xp.
Cornelius' gold watch
Go to Farrels house in the north area. He will tell you that everyone accuses him of stealing Cornelius' watch. Offer to help.
Now, go to the outhouse in the north. Climb down the hole. Place dynamite as close as the rocks as possible. Set it to three minutes so it goes of when you leave and climb up. Half of Modoc is now covered in...well, see for yourself. Anyway, climb back down and go through the cave. Kill the pig rat and take the watch. Give it to Farrel. Reward: Exp and some crap in the cave.Farrels garden
Farrel says that his garden is infested, and he wants you to be his bug exterminator. Get to the garden and let your NPC's do the killing. These rats inflict radiation damage, and NPC's are immune to it. Return to Farrel.
Grisham’s Brahmin
Yet another quest involving brahmin. Talk to Grisham in the slaughterhouse and try to leave. He will offer you a job to protect his brahmin herd from a bunch of dogs. Agree to help him and you'll be taken to the field (note: my npc's killed the brahmin too, not just the dogs, so you might want to leave them until you've done this). Kill all the dogs; you'll lose 100$ for each killed brahmin. Return to Grisham. 1000$ earned, assuming none of the brahmin got killed.
Jonny
Talk to Balthas in the tannery. If you have enough karma he will give you a quest when you comment on his sad look. Balthas will send Laddie, a dog with you to help. Jonny is at the ghost farm. Bring him back when you go there.
The Ghost Farm
Talk to the mayor in the house west of the slaughterhouse. Ask him about information about a GECK. He'll say that he knows where you can find one, but you have to do him a favor first. If you want to, you can cut off his pinky finger, but you will lose karma. This is the ghost farm that Karl in the Den was talking about. Get to the Ghost Farm (preferably during the daytime) and when you get there, examine the bodies. You'll find out that they're fake. Go into the house and step on the rug. You will fall down a pit. Follow the guards, and you will be taken to the leader of the slags. Agree to help him. Before you go, get to the northwest part of the cave and speak to the boy that Laddie runs up to. Agree to take him home, but you'll have to ask Vegeir for permission first. Do that later. First, get to the mayor in Modoc and give him the message. Tell him about the fake bodies, and that Karl is in the Den. Get to the Den and tell Karl to come back. Go to the Ghost Farm and tell Vegeir about the mayor’s response. Ask if it's alright to take Jonny home. Mission completed, exp, an assault rifle, and lower prices at the general store rewarded. You will also get a combat leather jacket from Balthas.
Time to leave for Vault City.
Welcome to vault city, home of the most ignorant, outsider-hating morons in the wastelands. There are some necessary quests here though, so you’ll just have to suck it up and drive on.
Guns and bullets can be found in the bar in the courtyard.
One of the best NPCs, Cassidy is here. He owns the bar. If you ask him how things are going, he will, after a while of talking, join you. Cassidy is good with the gauss rifle, combat shotgun, or just about any small gun you can think of. You can also give him a pulse pistol to haul ass.
The computer in the vault holds the location of nearly every city in the game.
Vic’s daughter, Val, is here and working in the maintenance building. You get to listen to some boring conversation. Yay!
If you use science on the medical computers in the vault, you can read about combat implants (80% doctor skill needed). You can ask some doctors to do them on you (not Dr. Troy though), but it’s very expensive. You’ll need a combat armor for each implant and there are 2 of them, and 2 upgrades. You’ll also lose a point of charisma for each upgrade (not the initial implant). With these you get some resistance to fire/energy attacks and physical attacks.
Free Joshua
A lady in the courtyard wants you to free her husband, who’s being held at the servant allocation center. Before you can get there you need a day-pass. Get into the office to the right of the city gate (not the one you get to when you first enter the city, the gate when you enter the REAL city) and talk to Skeev the assistant. Buy some fake papers from him and then threaten to tell everyone that he’s selling them. You’ll get 300$. Get to the gate and talk to the guard. Show him the papers and he’ll let you through. You should note that for some reason he will randomly get mad at you, so save first. Then just throw the papers away; the guards won’t check if you have them anymore. When you enter the allocation center, you can either convince the guy working there that Josh is suffering from a rare disease (the (insertcharacternamehere)-syndrome), or you can simply bribe him. Piece of cake, exp and money earned.
Get a plow
A family north of the bar is missing a plow. You will have to buy one from Happy Harry’s for either 800 or 650$ (if you have sufficient speech skill). You get a Desert Eagle.
Cure rad-poisoned guy
Puking Charlie is lying in his tent and suffering from a radiation poisoning. Give him some radaway. Exp awarded.
Get alcohol to Vault City bar
The owner of the bar right next to the city gate needs some alcohol. Give her 10 beers and 10 booze to get some cash and exp.
Scout areas surrounding Gecko
Go to Sergeant Stark in the Corrections Center. Say that you want to help by doing some scouting. He’ll tell you to scout the eight sectors around Gecko. Do that and return. Cash awarded, and some exp.
Plot route to the NCR
Just go to NCR, enter the city, and return. You might want to wait with this until you will have to go there anyway. You get a motion scanner.
Get some Jet to the doctor in the vault
The doctor in the vault needs you to smuggle in some jet for him (when you try to leave). Since you have fake papers, the guards won’t search you when you enter the city.
Note: This mission didn’t work for me when I patched the game, but it can’t hurt to try, right?
Curtis’ doll
Curtis lost his doll and you’re going to have to find it for him. It’s located behind the bar. When you get him the doll, wait and see what he says to it. At some point he will say that a wrench is buried under the rocks behind the bar. Search it and you’ll find…a wrench (surprise!).
(New Reno) Bishops briefcase
There is a guy talking about slavery and stuff in the inner city. If you talk and agree with him, he’ll give you a briefcase and ask you to deliver it to John Bishop. See the New Reno section for more.
Val’s tools
Val wants a wrench and a tool kit (not to be confused with the super tool kit). Give her the wrench you got from Curtis. A tool kit purchased from amenities office A or B to the west of the maintenance building. After a few days, you’ll receive a super tool kit from her.
Repair Gecko’s plant
Get to the council building to the north. On the way there you will probably notice THE VAULT™. It’s not the vault you’re looking for, so there’s no rush to enter it. As a matter of fact, you can’t enter until you’re a citizen, unless you cheat and enter action mode close to the vault and just walk straight in. Anyway, when you get there, talk to the woman known as “the bitch”, Lynette. Make sure you bring the water flask from Arroyo. Talk to her about stuff, and make sure not to upset her. If you do, you’ll probably be killed or kicked out of the city. Ask her about optional ways to become a citizen (you can do the test, but you’ll need higher luck than you’ve got, so it’s impossible to pass) and she’ll tell you about the problem with the Gecko plant. She wants you to destroy it, but that isn’t very nice is it? So we’re going to repair it instead.
Go to Gecko and talk to the guy in the house to the west (the managers office), Harold the ghoul. Ask him how things are going, and he’ll tell you that they need a hydroelectric magnetosphere regulator. Go back to Vault City (you might want to do the quests in the Gecko section below first) and talk to council member McClure, in the council building. Tell him that you need the hy-mag to repair the plant. He’ll tell you to go to the amenities office to get one. Now that you have one, head back to Gecko. Get into the power plant to the east. You’ll have to steal keycards from the guards if you want to get past the color coded doors (and you do want that). Get to Festus; he’s in the east area of the plant. Try to convince him to install it. If you can’t, you’re going to have to do it yourself. This is the order the commands are to be put in:
-Amplify Plutonium-Gamma Shield.
-Deharmonize Neptunium Impeller.
-Calibrate Uranium-Rod Driver.
-Set Voltage on Saturn-Class Capacitor.
-Test Jupiter Wave Control.
-Install Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator
You’ll now get a load of exp. We are not done yet however. Talk to Festus. He now wants you to optimize the plant. To do that, you have to put a disc in Vault City’s central computer and then put it into Geckos power plant compy. Go talk to McClure about fixing the plant and he’ll give you citizenship papers. Now you can get into the vault, so do that and proceed to the second floor. Loot everything and be sure to get the voice recognition module. There are two doors which require eight strength to open and some doors are locked. One of the rooms, which you can’t get into, holds a memory module, which ironically enough increases your strength. You’ll need power armor to get through. There is also a broken vent which you can repair to find some micro-fusion cells. Anyway, when you’ve done that, get to the third floor and use the central compy. You can also use science skill on the compy to the west for 350 exp. When you got all the data (be sure to get all the town locations as well, you get the option to reformat your pipboy when you try to log off), head back to Gecko and jam the disc into the computer. Go talk to Harold about how things are running now. He’ll start talking about another smoothskin that did a similar thing. Tell him that’s your ancestor and he’ll give you some super stimpacks. Quest done. (Note: apparently you can get a disc from a rat god in the underground in Gecko, which will convince McClure to let you repair the plant. You don’t need it though.)
The Raiders
To the south of Vault City, you will find a small, unknown location. This happens to be the base of a large band of raiders. These guys are pretty tough, so you may want to wait with this until you’re a bit higher level. There are two possible entrances; one is a ladder directly down to the lair. The other one is slightly more complicated, with a lot of traps and pits filled with radscorpions. Either way you enter, just kill them all. You will find three dog-tags with numbers on them. These numbers are the combination to the safe in the north-west part of the cave (that safe happens to be trapped, by the way). In there you’ll find information about Bishop hiring the raiders to attack Vault City. Give it to Lynette.
That pretty much covers vault city.
There is another NPC to find here. His name is Lenny and he’s pretty much useless, except for his doctor skill. If you still want him, you can find him in the same building as Harold.
Skeeter the mechanic can upgrade your weapons. It’s expensive though, and you can get it for free once you get to New Reno anyway. He’s located in the machine shop in the north area. Skeeter also has a Fuel Cell Regulator, which he will give to you in exchange for a super tool kit (which you get from Val)
Woody
The ghoul in the house with the "survival gear" wants you to find his friend, Woody. Woody is located in the Den. Get there, and go to the haunted house (see the Den section, Anna’s locket quest). There is a guy there who can show you a mummy if you pay some cash. Do it, and you’ll notice that it’s a ghoul. Tell him to run (anyone notice a resemblance from Forrest Gump?), then get back to Gecko and talk to the guy who gave you the quest. Quest done. Reward: medical supplies.
The three step plasma transformer
Skeeter wants you to get him the thing mentioned above. You need a part requisition form to get it. There is one in Harold’s office. Get to the power plant, and then to the storage room. Talk to the glowing ghoul and ask for the part (don’t tell him you’re getting it for Skeeter). Give the part to Skeeter and he will upgrade a weapon for free.
Super tool kit
Skeeter wants a super tool kit. If you get one to him, he will give you a fuel cell regulator, which you need to buy the car. You will have a super tool kit if you gave a wrench and a tool to Val.
In this city there are four different gangster families. I will list all their quests, but you can’t become a made man without a shitload of work, and a lot more than I’d care to describe. You can probably find a guide that covers that, though. Obviously, if you do a quest to nail one boss then you can’t take a mission from him. I’ll leave it to you to decide the order you want to do them in. I do recommend, however, that you do the second quest for the Wright family. There are huge rewards in it.
Algernon is in the basement of New Reno arms. He can upgrade ANY weapon and flamethrower ammo for free. To get to him, go into Eldridge’s room (when he’s not there), and you’ll find stairs behind a shelf.
As soon as you leave Virgin Street (the one you come to when you enter the city), your car will - if you have one – get stolen. To get it back, you can a) ask the kid outside the cats paw or b) threaten Jules a bit. If you choose a), make the kid tell you who stole it (it was Jules by the way) instead of pointing out the way. Jules will kill him otherwise. Then you arrive at the chop shop. Just kill everyone or screw T-ray (if you’re female) to get your car back. If you’re Bishop’s made man you can also get him to give it to you. Alternatively, you can buy it, but that’s just boring. You will get some experience for taking it without violence, but it won’t make a huge impact on the game.
You can make porno movies (yay!), but you need high endurance and agility. You won’t make a lot of money, either. You’ll get the porn star perk though.
You can become a boxer here. Talk to the midget in the gym and ask him if you can box. Then you have to defeat 4 opponents. You will get higher toughness percentage and the champion perk. In the second floor of Bishops bar, the Shark Club, you can find a pair of boxing gloves with some iron in them. This will greatly boost your damage.
Cat’s paw
Head in to the cat’s paw building in Virgin Street. Be sure to bring a cat’s paw magazine, found scattered around the wastelands. Ask Miss Kitty about it, and she will ask you to bring her ten issues. Apparently you need 11, because the pages are stuck together in one of the issues. You’ll get a special cat’s paw magazine, which you can read for more energy weapons skill.
Mordino quests
Deliver Jet
Talk to little Jesus in the Desperado casino and ask for work (you need high strength to get any though). Then go to his dad, Big Jesus. He will ask you to deliver a case of jet to the stables, north of New Reno. I would suggest not opening the case, since you will both lose the quests and be attacked by the guards there. Just deliver it to the guy named Ramirez. Get back to Big Jesus. In the stables, you can find another NPC. His name is Myron, and to get to him you have to be a sexy woman or have a card that will allow you to go to his room. To get the card, you need science skill and intelligence. Talk to the bald woman in the house to the west and use smart words. You can also shoot your way in. Anyway, just ask how the Mordino’s are treating him and he will join you after a bit of whining. He’s pretty much useless, though, except for one thing. He can give you the Jet quest. You need high science skill and intelligence to get it. Convince him that it is possible to make a cure for jet, and then get to the doctor in vault city. He’ll make some for you. This is part of another quest too, listed in the Redding section.
Collect tribute
You need to collect cash from the guys owning the pr0n studio. You shouldn’t have any problems with this; just ask nicely.
Nail Salvatore
Note that after you’ve done this quest you will become a made man and every other family will attack you on sight until you attack a Mordino family member. What you have to do is go to Salvatore’s bar. Get to the second floor and talk to the guard about working for Mr. Salvatore. As soon as you get in, steal Salvatore’s oxygen tank and then either a) run or b) kill everyone in the bar. If you choose option b), you will receive metal armor, a metal armor MK II, lots of laser pistols, lots of small energy cells and a pair of mirrored shades from Mason’s body. Is it worth it? Hell yes.
Salvatore quests
Pretty Boy Lloyd
You need to find the bastard who stole some money from Salvatore. This quest would be very hard if you didn’t know where to find him. Anyway, get to the desperado. You’ll notice that there are stairs leading down under the stairs where you go to find Big Jesus. Go down them. Walk around the tanks placed near the east wall. When you get to the door, lockpick it. If you don’t have sufficient lockpick skills, you could probably get some lockpicks from vault city. Anyway, talk to Lloyd, and tell him to show you the grave where he stashed the money. Tell him to dig it up since there is a landmine there and you probably won’t notice it until you’re dead. Then tell him to get down and drop the mine on him (some fun dialogue here). Climb down, get the money and return it to Salvatore. You will receive 50% of the dough.
Note: If you haven’t patched your game, the game will most likely lock itself when you enter the grave. If this is the case, you can instead choose to hide and then follow him. He will then go and get the cash, and you can kill him and take it without having to enter the grave.
Renesco the rocketman
Now Salvatore wants you to collect tribute from Renesco, the local pharmacist (the term “pharmacist” maybe isn’t the most accurate description, but that’s what his sign says). Make sure you have enough money to pay the tribute yourself since you’re going to have to do that. Get to Renesco and keep telling him that you’re Mr. Salvatore’s representative. Don’t say anything else. After a while, he will agree to give you a lot of stuff for free if you pay the tribute for him. “A lot of stuff” basically means his entire stock. You’ll have to take it all now because you won’t get another chance (even if you say that you will come back for it). Pay Salvatore and you will get 25% of the tribute.
The transaction
This time, you’re going to help Salvatore with a transaction with the Enclave. This quest is really easy, all you have to do is to stand still until you’re told to get back to New Reno. After this quest you will be made man: Salvatore.
Wright quests
The poisoned Jet
Go to the east part of new Reno. Go into the train station to the north, and talk to the guy named Chris Wright. Ask him if his family has any work available, and he’ll send you to his brother. Go to the Wright mansion (to the south) and talk to Keith. (Outside the mansion there are kids playing. If you ask them what they’re playing, they will show you to a secret transaction between the Salvatores and the Enclave. You’ll earn some exp for it). Tell him Chris sent you. You’re now free to talk to his dad. Now, he is kind of cranky, so be very polite. He wants you to find out who poisoned his kid, Richard. Go talk to the guy with the rifle and ask him about Richard. Ask if it’s alright if you search his room. Now, go into Richard’s room and search one of the drawers. You’ll find an empty jet canister. Go back to the area to the west. Talk to the guy standing in the middle of the street, Jagged Jimmy J. Ask him about the jet canister, and you will find out that it contains poison from radscorpions. Now go to the west area and talk to Renesco. You will find out that the Salvatore ordered him to make poisoned jet in order to kill Richard. Go back to Mr. Wright and tell him that the Salvatores poisoned Richard. You will receive cash and a new mission.
S.A.D (Sierra Army Depot)
Once you get the quest, head to S.A.D. It’s very useful to have about 80% repair skill or Vic in your party. When you get there, you’ll probably notice some minigun turrets standing around. You should shoot these with a sniper rifle, since you can then hit them from outside their range (Apparently you can also just wear purple robes (which you can find in the pr0n studio) and the turrets won’t attack you.) Now, watch out for all of the traps; they’re slightly more dangerous than the ones in the temple of trials. Get into the shed to the west. Watch out for the traps in the door and get the howitzer shell that can be found there. Go to the house to the east and load the shell into the howitzer cannon there. Now the entrance is open. Technically, the quest is now done, but there are LOTS of goodies in there, which I’m sure you’ll want. There’s also Skynet, the robot NPC. He’s really useful, too. If you have either a high repair skill or Vic, just go in there. If you don’t, you’re going to have to go down the manhole directly north of the house and cut the power. When you cut the power, the forcefields will be weak enough to pass through, but you will however sustain some damage. If you don’t cut the power, the depot will be a lot brighter and you can deactivate the forcefields with repair skill instead. To deactivate a forcefield, use repair on the small thing on the side of the forcefield. Note that the robots will attack you if you fail to deactivate a forcefield three times. Anyway, when you enter, search the desk and you will find a paper with the password to deactivate all the forcefields on the first level. Next, head to the southeast corner and get Dixon’s eye. Be sure to pick up the bio-med gel on the floor too. Use the eye on the retinal scanner next to the elevator door. You can also use the service elevator to the west. Either way, on the third floor in the northeast room, you can find Clifton’s eye, which is needed to proceed.
To get Skynet, here’s what you do:
Use the big supercomputer in the third floor. Find out that it wants to leave. To be able to do this, you must build a robot for it. You need:
1. A cybernetic brain (any other brain will do, but the robot will pretty much suck if you don’t use the cybernetic one)
2. Bio-med gel
3. A motivator
In order to retrieve the cybernetic brain, you will need an incredibly high science skill (about 125%). Proceed to the fourth floor and go to the room with a terminal and a glass window in it. Use the computer and attempt to retrieve the cybernetic brain. If you have a high enough science skill, you will get it and the robot will explode for some reason. Next, you need a motivator, and the only way to get it anytime soon is to kill a robot. If you use the retinal scanner on the first floor without Dixon’s eye, there should come out a few robots armed with combat shotguns, which shouldn’t be too hard to kill, but it’s your choice. Now, when you have all those things, go to the third floor, and proceed to the northwest room. Use the brain, the gel, and the motivator on the robot. Then use the terminal outside to activate it. Save first incase you forgot anything (the robot will explode if you did). Talk to him, and he’ll join you.
Bishop quests
Assassinate Westin
If you have the briefcase from vault city, enter Bishop’s room and give it to him. Ask for another job, and he will ask you to assassinate Roger Westin. The catch is that you have to make it look like an accident. Fortunately, it’s not hard at all, but you may want to do his quest first. Go to NCR, and in the downtown area, you will find the Westin ranch to the west. To get in there, ask the Sheriff (southwest of the police station) for work and he will send you there. Once you get in, use a super stimpack or poison on him, and he will instantly die. You can find poison in the doctor’s house south of the downtown area.
Assassinate Carson
This quest is slightly different from the first quest. You can actually just shoot your way through the city and get to him, but that’s not very intelligent to do. What you need to do to get past the forcefield is to steal a presidential pass. The only one who has one is in the congress hall to the east. To get in there, though, you have to talk to Dusty at the bar in the south end of the downtown area. Ask him about work, and he will mention President Tandi. Ask about it. Then, go to the congress hall and talk to one of the guys in there. Tell him that you’re there to see Tandi about the job. He will then let you in. You can steal the presidential pass from the guy in suit, but you will want to take this quest later anyway, so you might as well do it now. Anyway, go across the street to the mansion and use the pass on the guard. You will now be granted access. You can just go into the house and shoot him, but the best way is to take a good long-range weapon (like a sniper rifle) and go through the gate to the south. Position yourself so that you may shoot him through the window. It’s easiest if you do this in one attack turn, so aim for the head and hope for the best. You will become Bishops made man after this quest.
Now it’s time to leave for Broken Hills.
There is a useful (well, semi-useful) NPC here that goes by the name of Marcus the mutant. He can use big guns, but cannot wear armor. If you value your and your party member’s lives, I’d suggest that you don’t give him a mini gun. He will join you when you complete the broken mine and the missing people quests.
You can take tests of your agility, perception and intelligence here. However, you will only be able to pass the AG and PE tests unless you do the quest to replant a spore plant. You’ll get some xp for each test passed.
Find the missing people
Marcus wants you to find a bunch of people that went missing. If you tell him that you will do it for free, you will get a scoped hunting rifle (extremely good for long range sniping, lousy for close combat) instead of the 500$. You have to find a ladder down to the tunnels under the city. The best one is probably the one in a house just east of the mine (which can be found to the north of the residential area). Kill all the giant ants you come across; these are twice as tough as the ones you encountered in the temple of trials. Go to the east and after a while you will find a room full with bodies. If you search the body of a woman cut in half you will find a letter. Read it, and go to Francis in the bar (note: he will disappear when you do this, so you might want to arm-wrestle him for his power fist first). Just lecture him a bit, and he will eventually choose to leave the town. Now, go talk to Marcus.
Fix the mine’s air purifier
Marcus also wants you to repair the air purifier in the mine. First, go talk to Zaius. He will inform you that the gas in the mine will nail anyone that enters. There is a way around this though. If you have power armor or advanced power armor, you won’t be hurt by the gas. I’ve heard that you can use the oxygen tank found in Salvatore’s room, but that didn’t work for me. Before you enter the mine, you have to get a part from Renesco in New Reno. When you enter the mine, if you have a motion detector, you will notice that someone seems to be in the wall to the right. It looks like the wall is solid, but you can actually walk through there. You will find some weird guy sleeping who will hurry out of there when you talk to him. You can find a piece of uranium nugget there. This can be refined at the building to the south of the bar. You’ll have to pay for it, but the ghoul doing it will buy it back for 500$ more than you paid for. Anyway, just find the air purifier and use the mining part on it. You will get a combat shotgun from Zaius.
Find Dan’s Wife
Dan wants you to find his missing wife. This will be completed when you do the missing people quest. His wife is the body holding a letter. You get some experience.
Replant the spore plant
If you go to the entrance of the mine (northern part of residential area), you might notice a talking spore plant that will not attack you. Talk to it, and you will find out that it wants you to replant it. Just get a shovel and talk to it in order to replant it. As a reward, the plant will teach you a chess maneuver that will help you defeat the professor’s scorpion that was mentioned in misc. stuff. When you beat the scorpion, it will attack you. Just kill it.
Typhoon the ghoul
Go to the old ghoul’s retirement home. There you will find Typhoon, son of Set. If you have played Fallout 1, you’ll probably recognize this name as the bastard in Necropolis. Anyway, Typhoon wants you to get some stuff for him. In return, he will tell you about a huge treasure. First, he wants a cat’s paw magazine. There is one in a pot outside a house just north of the exit grid that leads to the residential area. Give it to him and then rest for an hour. Now he wants a blow-up doll. You can find one in a bookcase, located in the house behind Marcus. Give it to him and once again rest for a few hours. Now he wants some rot-gut. Buy one from the bar. Finally, he will tell you about the treasure (not very precise, though) and you will earn some experience. Now, use the well in the west area. You’ll find out that the treasure is in there, but you’re too big to fit down the well. Luckily, a midget is standing nearby. Talk to him, and say that you know where you can find quite a bit of cash. Read some funny conversation, and then you’ll get the sack of cash. Apparently, it’s just bottle caps. Oh well.
Buster, near the entrance to the town, sells a lot of good weapons and ammo. It’s really expensive, though.
A bum at the west end of the first area can upgrade your car. It takes forever though, and I haven’t noticed any difference.
The hubologist in town can give you +2 luck. Be sure to save first because he will give you -1 if you take the wrong dialogue options.
Kill the hubologist
When you enter the Rawhide saloon at night, you may find someone named Merk. He wants you to kill the local hubologist. Before you do this, though, you should get the +2 luck enhancement from him (the hubologist). Save first in case the police force decides to kill you.
Steal the doctor’s papers
Merk now wants you to steal some secret papers from the doctor’s house. You can find them in the desk.
Test mutagenic serum
The doctor that you stole some papers from wants you to test a serum that is supposed (note the italic letters) to turn a super-mutant into a human. Agree to the quest, and you will be given a hypodermic full of the serum. Use it on a mutant and watch it melt into a puddle of goo. I’d suggest using it on the annoying bastard in the Rawhide saloon since nobody will attack you if you do. He has some stuff on him too. As a reward, you will receive a cyber hound MK II. It is considered an NPC.
Save the power plant (and Jack)
When you walk by the power plant east of the police station, chances are that the woman outside will ask you to help. Apparently, an officer has gone mad and will soon bomb the power plant. If you are unable to talk him out of it, shoot him before he can blow it up. Save first, though. You will get a bunch of books and some exp if you didn’t shoot him. If you do shoot him, you can then go talk to the bartender at the Rawhide saloon. She will be pretty happy about it.
Guard Westin’s Brahmin
Talk to the sheriff, Dumont, located across the street from the police station. Ask for some honest work and about Westin. He will tell you to go to his ranch to the west. Talk to the guard on the other side of the force field and tell him that you’re looking for work. Now, go to the guy outside Westin’s house, Felix. Tell him that the sheriff sent you. Talk to Westin, and he will send you back to Felix, who will take you to the Brahmin. Just wait and a few deathclaws will appear. When they leave, you can follow their tracks to Vault 13 if you have a high outdoorsman skill. If not, you’ll have to find it in either of the following ways:
1. Talk to the guy named Salt-beef something in Westin’s ranch. Ask about vault 13, and he will tell you some stuff, including that a doctor took the map he draw to it. Fortunately, it’s the very doctor located in NCR, south of downtown. You can buy the painting with the map on it for 10000$ or steal it back.
2. You can use a computer on the third floor of Vault 15. One of them has the location of Vault 13 in it.
Naturally, you should do this before you assassinate him for Bishop.
Become a ranger
In the eastern part of the downtown area, close to the Brotherhood of Steel, you will find a group that includes some people in combat armor and a mutant. Talk to the leader and she will ask you about your opinion about slavers. Just tell them that you hate them and she will ask you if you would like to be a ranger. Naturally, you should say yes, and then you will have to complete a test. This test is to kill all the slavers in the building northwest of the bazaar and free the slaves. The guards are all armed with desert eagles, except for one particular meanie, who packs a 14 mm gun. This can be tough, but if you have good gear and good NPCs, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. To free the slaves, use the terminals on the end of each row of cages.
Bring back computer parts from vault 15
Go to Dusty’s Cantina, and ask for work. He will tell you that Tandi is looking for an expert. Ask him about it. If you don’t want to have to convince her that you’re the man for the job, you can just beat up the guy in the bar until he starts to whine. Save first, in case the officers decide to kill you for it. Either way, go to the congress hall in the southernmost area. Speak to the guy in the first room and tell him that you heard Tandi is looking for work. Talk to the guy in the suit and he’ll “buzz you right in”. Head to Vault 15 after you get the job from Tandi. The rest of this quest will be displayed in the Vault 15 section.
Save Chrissy
Talk to Rebecca and agree to go talk in privacy. She will tell you that her daughter is missing. At the end of the dialogue, she will notice an eavesdropper. Go to the northeast and talk to the girl standing on the path. Tell her that a young girl’s life is at stake and so on. She will move, and you can later talk to her in Vault 13. Anyway, when you get to the other area, you might notice an elevator in the cliff. Don’t use it if you value your hit points; it’s trapped. Shoot the guy standing close to the house; there’s no way to escape battle here. A woman with a sniper rifle will come out. Shoot her too. Loot the bodies, and take the key that the guy was holding. Go in the house and search for traps on the door that leads to the room with Chrissy in it. Unlock the door as soon as you disarm the trap. When you talk to her, she will follow you back. Talk to Rebecca, and then go talk to Zeke, who’s in the building to the north. He will give you a keycard to the vault. Ask him if he would be willing to make a deal with NCR. If you have high enough speech skill, he should agree. You’ll have to wipe out the raiders first, though.
Bring back computer parts from Vault 15
Use the keycard you received from the quest above on the elevator doors also mentioned above. As soon as you go up you will be confronted by a raider. Try to convince her that you’re Pat and that you’re new here. If you manage to do it, you can go around as you like. If you don’t, the battle will start here. I will assume that you do make it. Get to the second floor and try to repair the generator. You’ll need to use science on it and then repair it. This floor is probably the best to start fighting since, if you come out of the elevator, you will be flooded with raiders immediately, which might make it hard to win. Get a good position and blast them away. Now go to the third floor and kill everyone before you enter Darion’s room. The computer in the bottom left room has the location of Vault 13. Now, kill Darion and his henchmen. Two of them are armed with power fists and two of them with assault rifles and combat armor. Darion has a flamethrower. He also has a dog, but it’s not very hard to kill. Once you kill everyone, use the computer to find out that there’s a spy in the congress. Go get the computer parts; it’s in the room with the lockers. Go to the first floor and kill everyone you see, except the doctor. Note that the force field has been turned on since you repaired the generator. That means you can kill the ones on your side of the force field, get healed by the doctor, then use the terminal by the force field to turn it off and kill the remaining raiders. Go talk to Tandi and be sure to mention the spy and to give the holodisk to Gunther. You’ll get 10000$ in total.
You will find the G.E.C.K and the NavCom parts (needed later) here. You’re supposed to get the G.E.C.K when you complete the deathclaws quest, but you can take it now if you want to.
You can find Goris the deathclaw here. He is a small deathclaw with great melee capabilities. He will join you, but he will go back to Vault 13 after a certain amount of time. You can go back and get him though.
Repair the main computer
Someone sabotaged the voice recognition module on it and it’s up to you to get a new one. You should’ve gotten one in Vault City’s vault, but if you were unable to get through the door there, you can still find one in New Reno. Eldridge the arms dealer happens to have one, which he will sell for 3000$, but you can either kill him and get it for free or convince him to sell it to you for 1500$. When you have the module, put it in the computer in Vault 13. Gruthar will give you the G.E.C.K. if you haven’t already snatched it.
When you leave the vault, you will get a vision of Hakunin telling you to hurry back. Get to Arroyo to find…well, see for yourself. Hakunin will give you the location of Navarro, an Enclave base to the south. Go there and talk to the guy in a purple robe. If you ask about a military base, he will give you the location of a military base to the south.
I suggest that you don’t raid this place until you have Adv. Power Armor and a good weapon. Anyway, in one of the tents you will find a map that will give you the location of San Francisco. You should go there before you clear this place. There’s a LOT of loot to get here though, so you really should do it.
To clear the base:
Kill all the dogs (they will attack you soon anyway). Pick up the metal pole next to the mining cart. Go to the small house northwest of the entrance. Lockpick the door or kick it in. Inside you will find some dynamite. Attach the pole to the cart, and then attach the dynamite. Use the cart and you will blow open the entrance. Go in there and kill any rat you encounter (they inflict poison/radiation damage). You will need some repair skill in order to fix the generator. When you do, use the elevator and go to the second floor. You will probably notice that the place is stuffed with super mutants, hence the tip to wait until you had some good gear. When you manage to kill them, you can get the power armor in the southeast corner and give it to one of your NPCs (or yourself if you don’t have anything better). Now, proceed to the third floor. In the lockers close to the elevator you will find a module, which enhances your perception. There are also lots of rockets lying around for some reason.
When you’ve cleared the floor, use the other elevator to get down to the fourth floor. I’m not 100% sure, but you may need Adv. Power Armor in order to survive down there due to the heavy F.E.V. presence. If you don’t have one, you will lose hit points gradually. Try to kill the super mutant in the end of the tunnel as soon as possible (he summons deathclaws). You’ll find a gauss pistol in the little chest.
In Ascorti’s casino you are able to trade goods for money. Just talk to the guy behind the barred window and trade.
There is a hunting rifle in the sheriff’s house.
Quests
Help the sheriff
The sheriff in town needs some help. If you’re a high level, you’ll be able to help him. The first thing you need to do is to kick out a lady who hasn’t paid her rent. Go to her house, which near the sheriff’s place. Instead of kicking her out, though, offer to pay her rent (120$). You get some exp.
Stop a bar fight
The sheriff will give you another quest, to break up the fighting in the bar. Go in there and talk to the guy. Once he agrees to go into jail, take him, but NOT the other one. Quest done.
Find out who cut the whore
Now the sheriff wants you to find out who abused a hooker in the Malamute Saloon. Talk to the bartender and then go to the northern area. Go into the Morning Star Mine building and talk to one of the guys there. He will confess as soon as you start talking to him, so take him into jail.
Take out Frog Norton
You’re to go to the western area and kill all the thugs in there. They are armed with combat shotguns, except Frog, who’s packing an H&K G11. Once you’ve killed them all, return to the sheriff.
Clear the wanamingo mine
Talk to Ascorti and ask what he does. You will be offered to buy the Wanamingo Mine contract for 1000$, and once you have cleared it, he will buy it back for 2500. Go down the elevator by Frog Norton’s corpse. These suckers are pretty tough (120-160 hit points) but they don’t do a lot of damage. Just be sure to have good armor and lots of ammo and you shouldn’t have much trouble. When you go down the elevator, you will immediately encounter the wanamingo queen, or whatever it should be called. Once you’ve cleared out this level, there’s another one to go. The upper level also consists of three areas. Don’t stop killing until you get the message that you have cleared the mine. Be sure to get the excavation chip from the mining machine, too, and then sell it to one of the miners in the north area of Redding. It doesn’t matter whom you sell it to.
Fix the jet problem
Go to Vault City and talk to Councilor McClure. Tell him about the jet problem in Redding. He will ask you to solve it. Now, go to the stables and convince Myron to join you. Once he’s in your party, ask him about jet and if there’s a cure. Convince him that a cure can be made (you need high science skill for this) and then you can ditch him if you want. Go to Dr. Troy in Vault City’s vault. Tell him about endorphin blockers, and eventually he will make an antidote and tell you to deliver it to Dr. Johnson in Redding. Do that, and the jet addiction is solved.
The best merchant in the game is here, east of the exit grid. He sometimes sells the gauss rifle, along with its invaluable ammo, 2mm EC. The gauss rifle can pierce anything and will kill anything below 100 hit points with one critical hit unless you roll a really low damage. This guy also sells power armor, super sledges, laser rifles, you name it. The best thing is that you can steal all the money back later!
There is another good merchant here. He has his store in the building just west of the exit grid.
Retrieve Vertibird plans
Talk to the BoS guard in the southwest corner. Ask him, "Who are you guys?" and he will tell you a lot of stuff. He’ll then ask you to infiltrate Navarro. It might be best to leave your NPCs here at the moment. Go to Navarro and talk to the robed guy. Ask if the Enclave are around, and say that you want to join. With some speech skill, he will give you the password. Without it, you will have to give him a bullet. You can still get in without any problems, but you won’t get the 1500 exp points you would’ve gained otherwise. Just open the door to the small house and go down the manhole. If you get in with the password, use an elevator to get to the first floor. Go into the room to the northwest and loot all the lockers. Among other things, you will find Adv. Power Armor, a plasma rifle, and a module that enhances your charisma. Now, talk to one of the computer guys in the room with a huge computer in it. Ask if you can use the computer. If you can’t convince him to let you do that, you’re going to have to hack it. Be careful, though; if you trigger an alert, everyone will attack you. Ask about the position of the Enclave main base. Log off, and save. Talk to the guard in combat armor guarding the room to the east. Tell him you’re here to lock up the tanker F.O.B. and he will (hopefully) let you in. If you don’t have enough speech skill to convince him, you’ll just have to kill everyone here, as that F.O.B. is vital if you want to finish the game. I suggest that you do all the other stuff first though, or you’re going to have to kill everyone on the ground floor too. That’s kind of hard actually with all the plasma towers.
Now, go talk to Dr. Schreber. Ask him if you can kill the deathclaw in a nearby room. He will agree, so go to the deathclaw. Tell him that you are going to rescue him. To get the key required, you need to kill the doctor. The room is soundproof, so don’t worry about being attacked. Get the key from the desk, and free the deathclaw. Now, if you want the robodog in the doctor’s room, talk to it. It will tell you to get a motivator. You can find one in the hangar on the ground floor. Anyway, go to the ground floor. Talk to one of the scientists in the southeast building. Ask where the vertibird plans are located. Now, go to the northwest building and talk to Quincy. Tell him that a tech told you that you could find the vertibird plans there. Tell him it was Raul, and you will get the plans (along with 3500 exp). You can go tell Raul that Quincy wants to see him, and Raul will go beat him up. Now you can get back to San Fran, but be sure to grab all the loot first. You’ll get 20000 exp (whoa!), and access to the BoS facility. In it, there is power armor, brotherhood armor, a pulse rifle, a pulse pistol, and some other stuff. There is also a computer, which can give you enhanced stats with the modules (finally!). You will also get a copy of the vertibird plans.
Retrieve Vertibird plans (2)
From the ring in the middle of San Francisco, go east. You will find the entrance to the Shi headquarters here. Find Ken Lee (in the throne room) and talk to him. Ask if you can see the emperor and he will tell you to do a quest first. You are to retrieve the vertibird plans from Navarro. Since you hopefully already did that, you should have a copy of them, but be absolutely sure to give them to the BoS first since the Shi won’t give you a copy. Just give the plans to a doctor nearby.
Kill AHS-9
Before you can see the emperor, you will have to do another quest. AHS-9 is pretty tough to kill without proper gear, so you better prepare yourself. If you do have the right weapons/armor though, it’s a piece of cake. The guards have combat armor, so I would use a small gun instead of an energy weapon. The gauss rifle works fine if you have it; if not, you can use the gauss pistol or a pancor jackhammer. Before you attack anyone, though, bring two suits of power armor. The Hubologist’s base is located to the north, close to the exit grid leading to the harbor. Climb down the stairs, and talk to the robed guy outside the force fields. Ask if you can join, and you will be granted entrance. Now, take your two suits of power armor to the scientist in the east end of the base. Ask him what new stuff he has come up with, and he will tell you about the hardening of power armor. Ask him to upgrade your suit for the low price of his life. If he’s not convinced, try again (you might have to reload). Rest for a day or two, and then ask him to upgrade the other suit. As soon as you upgraded your power armors, give them to your NPCs. Now, all you have to do is to kill everyone that attacks you, including the guy in the smoking (that’s AHS-9). Once you’re done that, report to Ken Lee, and you will be granted access to speak with the emperor. You can’t really do anything with it (it’s a computer) yet, but you will use it later.
Kill Lo-Pan
When you first got here, you should’ve noticed two guys fighting each other in the ring. Go talk to the guy that won, the Dragon. His gym is just next to the ring. Challenge him, but not to death. You will face a bunch of kung-fu fighters, but not the Dragon himself. When you fight, you will probably have to rely on critical hits to the head or eyes, unless you have a ton of hit points and a good melee damage. You should also note that it’s very buggy, even with the latest patch. For example, I win, and face a new opponent, but the old one is still there when the fight starts, creating a two on one advantage for them. Save often, but preferably on a different slot. Once you’ve won against all opponents, you should go challenge Lo-Pan to a fight to the death. Once you’ve killed him, you will receive some exp points and karma.
Recover Chip’s spleen
When you enter the tanker (north of the harbor, can’t miss it), you will see a guy named Chip whining about his spleen. That’s because it’s missing. The merchant near the entrance of the town apparently got it in a gamble. Go talk to him, and he will tell you that he sold it to Dr. Wong, who is in the Shi HQ. Go talk to Dr. Wong and after a while he will tell you about the spleen. Convince him that it’s a human spleen. Now, go talk to Chip and tell him you’ve located the spleen. He will now ask you to talk to Dr. Fung about reinserting the spleen. You will have to pay for it though. Go tell Chip about it, and you’re done.
Clearing out the tanker
If you have not yet gotten the gauss rifle or something equally good, now is the time to do so. You’re going to clear out the tanker hold, which is literally filled with monsters. Just go down the stairs or a manhole in the tanker and start blowing them away. Once you’ve killed all the monsters, find the girl to the northwest and she will follow you to a ladder. Now, go talk to Badger and he will be very grateful. You can later ask him to direct fuel to the tank or you can do so yourself by either hacking the mainframe in the Hubologists base or via the emperor. First, though, go talk to the captain, who can be found on the top floor. Ask him what you need in order to make the tanker useable again. He will tell you that you need fuel and new NavCom parts. In order to install the NavCom parts, go to the tanker hold and find a door. It can only be opened with the Tanker F.O.B. that you found in Navarro. You will now get to the navigational computers. Install the NavCom parts that you got from Vault 13 and you’re good to go. Just use the terminal next to the captain and press go. You will now be transported to the Enclave main base. I suggest you are at least level twenty-two or something near that before attempting this, but you don’t really need to be.
There are two ways to do this. You can either use the long and hard (but more fun) way, or you can use the quick and easy way. The hard way includes killing everyone in your path. This is not an easy task, since everyone is armed with gauss rifles, plasma rifles, vindicator mini guns, super sledges, and the occasional security bot. The easy way is the same except that you never attack anyone and don’t bring any NPCs. If you have your NPCs with you, you will be attacked.
Start by looting the entire first floor. You can probably find some good stuff here. Now, go south from the room with all the sentry guns and you’ll find a set of stairs. On this floor, you will find all of your missing tribesmen. Talk to the Elder, and she will tell you to destroy the reactor on the oil rig in order to blow the place into space. Loot the entire floor; you will, among other things, find two gauss rifles and a lot of 2mm EC. Take the stairs down to level three. You will find yourself in a maze. The floor sometimes gives you electrical shocks, but do NOT rest when you’re hurt. It will kill you. Note that there’s a computer in each room. In order to get past this place, you will have to use the computers in the right order. Each computer will open some doors and close others. The room looks like this, 1 being the upper left room, 9 being the lower right, and 2 being the room you enter first.
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Use the terminals in room 2, 1 and 4 to gain access to the rooms on each side of the maze. One of them contains a suit of Adv. Power Armor MKII, while the other contains a G.E.C.K., which you will have to take if you don’t have one in your inventory already. Once you’ve looted both rooms, use the terminals (in this order) in the rooms 6, 2, 3, 2, 7, 8, and 9, and then proceed to the next floor. On this level, you should notice a guy in a suit standing in front of a world map. That is the President of the U.S. Talk to him and he will tell you some things you probably didn’t know. Once you’re done talking to him, enter sneak mode (be sure the doors are closed) and kill him in one turn. Save first, though, in case someone notices and starts attacking you. You can also kill him with super stimpacks, but you’ll need a lot (at least 8). Take his presidential pass and go talk to a doctor in the room to the northwest. Ask him about real humans. Eventually, you will get a really long dialogue option about evolution (or something like that). Now, he will suggest spraying the entire base with the F.E.V. toxin, and inoculating you and your tribesmen with the antidote. Once he’s done that, proceed to the next floor. You will find a huge super computer here. In order to destroy it, place plastic explosives or dynamite close to it (save first) and blow it up. You will now have ten minutes to get the hell out of there. Luckily, the blast doors open so you can take a quick route to the first floor. When you get to the room with all the sentry guns in it, you should meet some enclave soldiers. Save, and talk to their boss. You can convince him to help you fight Horrigan (he’s the big guy in the next room, if you didn’t notice). Before you attack Horrigan, sneak to the computer in the same room. With the presidential pass, you can order the gun turrets to shoot at Horrigan, making the battle a lot easier. Now, just shoot all you got at him. He has 999 hit points, so it might take a few minutes. Once you’ve killed him, get out of there. Congratulations, you’ve now finished the game!
Note: if you want to get Horrigan's cool weapons, here’s how you do it.
When you killed him, lead one of the enclave soldiers so that he stands directly over Horrigan’s body. Kill him. When you loot the corpse, you might (if you did it right) get the option to switch between his body and Horrigan’s. You can now loot Horrigan’s body and take the end boss knife and end boss gun.